Conventional extruded ice cream products, such as ice cream bars having sticks and ice cream sandwiches, are automatically processed using a conveyor-type production line. Each extruded ice cream product is moved along a conveyor line, or belt, for processing of the product at different locations or stations. Multiple products are placed on the conveyor line and arranged in ordered columns and rows to be received for post-processing by downstream processing machines. The products may be arranged on trays placed along the conveyor line. Proper alignment of the tray relative to the conveyor line, and proper alignment of the ice cream products relative to the tray, or to the conveyor line, must be ensured along the length of the conveyor line. The proper alignment of the products enables each extruded ice cream product to be processed at the downstream station.
The downstream station requires proper alignment of the extruded ice cream products so that the post-processing machine is able to engage or pick up the products. For example, the machine may pick up the product by the stick if the product is an extruded ice cream bar having a stick. Improper alignment of the tray or the product will result in the post-processing machine failing to pick up the misaligned product, and the product will be discarded as waste. The tray containing the extruded ice cream products may also be misaligned or bent, such that the height of each extruded ice cream product will be different relative to the height at which the post-processing machine is configured to engage the products. The amount of misalignment is directly proportional to the number of products that are discarded, such that if the entire tray is substantially misaligned due to at least one of a horizontal displacement or vertical displacement, all of the products on the tray will most likely have to be discarded.
Current extruded ice cream production lines rely on the manual judgement of a product line operator. The operator visually inspects the extruded ice cream product positions during the continuous movement of the trays and products, and the detected misaligned products may be re-aligned before reaching the post-processing machine. However, manually inspecting the product positions may be burdensome to the operator. Additionally, manual inspection may be subjective as different operators will have different judgment regarding the displacements of the products. Moreover, manual inspection may result in misaligned trays and products being frequently undetected, and subsequently, large quantities of wasted extruded ice cream products.